Elicia's Ice-A Descendants Novel BOOK 1

Breakout

My days ticked slowly down. 

First it was four. 

Then three.

Then two.

At midnight on the day before my last day, I was still working on getting out. Everybody'd been helping as much as they could, half of Auradon is down here!

But no way out. 

Sera groans as she punches the space near the gate again. The two pirates guarding it snicker at her attempts. We'd gone around, even asked Jane to use what powers she had, but nothing worked. 

I'd offered to try and use mine, but everybody had yelped and forbidden it. 

"You can't see what we see, Icy." Sera promised me. "If you could see yourself, you'd see why we don't want ya to use 'em."

So I'm stuck, watching them fight for a way out. 

So, that night, at midnight, when everybody else had gone to sleep in sheer exhaustion, I'd stayed awake. Staring at the ceiling in the dark. 

If I'd hoped for a solution to pop in, I'd been disappointed so far.

"C'mon, brain." I mutter to myself. 

Nothing. 

I screw my eyes shut and breathe in deep. Then breathe in sharp instead, my hand jumping to an excruciating pain in my side. These had been happening since yesterday, and my room lights a bit as my glowing blue blood runs down my veins painfully. 

I wince in the dark, breathing shallowly until it passes and my room falls in darkness again. 

There has got to be a way out of here. 

I sit up and get off my cot silently. I creep out of my cell/room/whatever and tiptoe along the hallway, careful not to wake anybody up. The only one who I know would catch me is Dude, and I have yet to find him down here. Carlos doesn't like bringing him up because nobody knows where Dude is. Brit bursts into tears every time somebody mentions him, and Quentin looks like he wants to. 

I go up to the gate. No pirates. That's odd. I reach my hand out until I feel the barrier. I lay my palm flat against the cool surface. 

I close my eyes. 

This may be the only way out, I remind myself. 

I take a breath in.

And as I breathe out, I summon all the ice I have. 

My eyes burst open as I feel the power rushing through me, making me feel more alive than I have in months, singing in my bones and out of my palm, light blazing through my eyes and my veins, until finally---

The spell guarding the gate shatters. 

Shards of magical glass rips through my skin, my palm still outstretched and my power still buzzing through me, and it doesn't leave until all the magical glass is around me, glowing a dangerous scarlet. 

I slowly put my hand down. 

I did it. 

But did I?

I look down at myself. Then back at the hall. Nobody's coming. I look down at me again. Blue blood drips down my skin, onto the glass shards that are gleaming in unison, lighting the room up with shadows that point directly to me. 

And I snap awake, gasping for breath.

I lay panting on my cot, clutching a painful stitch in my side, staring at the ceiling. The powerful feeling is gone, replaced with the weak, sick nausea I've been having for the past couple days.